Richard Feynman: A Life in Science - Hardcover

Gribbin, John; Gribbin, Mary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 052594124X ISBN 13: 9780525941248

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 1997

Synopsis

A profile of the noted physicist and author of Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman captures his wit, his genius, and his eccentricities and outlines his remarkable contributions to science.

About this title

Review:

Richard Feynman was something of a rarity: a science superstar. Like another superstar who preceded him, Albert Einstein, Feynman's science was ahead of his time, but it was his qualities as a human being that caught the imaginations of ordinary people. A whole body of legend has grown up around the man--much of it promulgated by Feynman himself--and nearly 10 years after his death he remains a popular subject of memoirs, biographies, and even films. In Richard Feynman, respected science writers John and Mary Gribbins combine biography with popular science in this absorbing look at the great man's life and work.

Though there's little new information about Feynman's personal life and interests here--everything from his passion for bongo drums to his fascination with the country of Tuva has been documented many times and in many places before now--the Gribbons do an exemplary job of explaining just why Feyman was such a giant among physicists. Quanatum theory is the kind of subject that could give the average reader a raging headache, yet the Gribbons explain it so well that by the end of Richard Feynman even the most non-scientific among us will be able to appreciate just what a singular contribution to our world this science superstar made.

About the Author:

John Gribbin, Ph.D., trained as an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge before becoming a full-time science writer. His books include the highly acclaimed In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, The First Chimpanzee, In Search of the Big Bang, In the Beginning, In Search of the Edge of Time, In Search of the Double Helix, The Stuff of the Universe (with Martin Rees), Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, and Einstein: A Life in Science (with Michael White). He lives in East Sussex with his wife and two sons.

Mary Gribbin is best known as a writer of science books for young readers. Together with her husband, John Gribbin, she has written several science books, including Richard Feynman: A Life in Science and Ice Age.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Adult
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 052594124X
• ISBN 13: 9780525941248
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320